Chapter Eleven

By: Mirei

Uhen ran up to Kagome the instant that this thought hit him. The others didn't even see this sudden motion coming but once it did they were ready to learn what exactly was going through Uhen's mind.

"Are you alright Uhen?" Kagome asked when he grabbed her by the shoulders. She was a little taken aback by his actions; he usually never acted this way.

"Who is this Azulu?" Sesshomaru growled at the name. Uhen looked over his shoulder when he had heard the sound.

"He's a friend of mine that I met when I arrived back in this time, why?" He let her go and started to pace back and forth on the dirt path.

"So then he must know, damn it." He growled

"Knows what?"

"Kagome how is it possible that you didn't feel his strange energy?"

"What are you talking about?" she stood in front of him to stop his pacing. He looked down at her and for a brief moment he could see his Kagome inside of her.

"She did the same thing. How could this happen again?" he rubbed his eyes.

"Yet again I'm confused."

"Kagome, she met a man before I arrived at her village. He would come and go and I never actually met him before. Until one day when I had shown up to tell her how I felt she was with him."

"Who's him?"

"Zualuu, he is this guy you call Azulu, he must have manipulated his name a bit. She was blindsided by his attractive façade so much that she didn't even realize that he had no life force. It was as if he weren't alive at all. I could feel that the moment I had shown up. Now this Azulu might have absorbed a human or demon to hide this fact. This whole time I was looking for the wrong person."

"Who were you looking for then?"

"Zualuu told her that the mist couldn't hurt humans, but she wasn't exactly human. When he left I talked to her. We ended up fighting because she claimed that I didn't trust her judgment and didn't trust her at all. We didn't speak for a few weeks. Then when I finally went to speak to her she told me about this dream she had had about a mist and then an elderly woman came to her and told her that she was to die to save the world. But I couldn't let her do that. So I picked her up and took her far away from the village to my father's castle. She complained all the way but I refused to listen. I was foolish then. She kept telling me that she had to die, that it was the only way."

"Then why didn't you just believe her?"

"Why does the sun rise or people die? The simple fact that I loved her too much to lose her I guess."

"Then maybe this time you can prevent this from happening." She looked at him with seriousness.

"What I have been asked to do is more painful than my first death."

"I'm sorry Sesshomaru, I really am, but some things must be done in order for others to survive." He looked down while the others wondered why Kagome called Uhen Sesshomaru.

"Hey Kagome is there a reason why you called Uhen Sesshomaru?" Miroku asked uneasily. She turned and had a shocked expression on her face. She covered her mouth with her hands and looked back at Sesshomaru's counterpart who glared at her for the first time.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I forgot."

"Count on you to mess things up." He said stalking off toward a tree.

"Hey get back here right now!" She yelled suddenly. He stopped but didn't turn. "I said that I was sorry isn't that good enough?"

"You gave away my identity so now I must go, you know where your destiny lays now Kagome, and I knew eventually this would happen." She ran after him.

"Why do you have to go?"

"Because the sages have called me back, you may tell them if you wish it but just know that after you finish with the mist you will be sent back home and they will be going to with you but will not have any memories of the events that occurred in this world." He walked past her and started for the water mirror that he had shown her in her dream.

"Wait, Sesshomaru, she wanted me to tell you that she isn't mad at you and that she still loves you. She felt that she didn't say it enough to you. She may have expected to much from you too and for that she is sorry." He turned and looked back at her.

"Tell her that I was the fool, she was worth more to me than any land or riches. She was like the very air that I breathe at this moment. I should have told her more often that I loved her. I spent most of the afterlife punishing myself for that. Tell her that I'll see her soon enough."

"Good bye I thank you for your help." She said and he smiled at her.

"I thank you for breathing, my friend." He then reached into his kimono and threw a mirror to her. "You Kagome are much like this mirror. So beautiful outside and inside you reflect your own self image to show that your inner beauty is just as radiant still. This mirror will allow you to view our lives together, me and Kagome I mean. This mirror will forever follow you into your next lives and reflect your own happiness and misfortune. It also shows you anything that you wish to see, so use it well…" He disappears without another word into his water mirror.

Kagome stood there for some time contemplating what had just happened. She knew that she would have to explain everything to her friends but now wasn't the time.

"Come on guys we need to get going." Was all she said and started to walk down the path again. No one was following though she realized. She turned around and looked at all of them. "What is it?" she asked.

"Kagome we want answers this time; you can't just expect us to believe that you don't have the answers right now. Do you remember what happened last time you tried to run things on your own." Said InuYasha who took a seat on the ground.

"I agree Kagome; you did say some strange things to Uhen or Sesshomaru? Whoever he was." Said Miroku obviously confusing himself.

Sesshomaru looked the same as always, except that everyone around him could feel his confusion dripping off of his pores. Kagome approached him and took his hand. He didn't pull away because he knew she was about to explain everything to him. He could feel it deep inside of him. But why wasn't he mad or even bother by the fact that the guy they'd been traveling with for the past few weeks was himself from another time. Usually that kind of information would freak a person out. He looked down at her and saw sadness in her eyes.

"Where should I start?" she asked him while the others listened and watched this display of affection.

"Why not give us the facts." Said Sesshomaru finally sitting down on a rock while she stood before her friends.

"Good idea. Okay let's see…" She thought it out in her head. "Okay here goes. I got a visit from a woman named Sahori, your mother Sesshomaru. She told me that I was to take care of the mist on my own. Once I die I'll be reborn back into my time, you guys also. The bad part about all of this is that once we are reborn we won't remember each other. I've been told that we'll all meet at different times. I'm supposed to meet with Sesshomaru while at school, InuYasha at a coffee shop, Sango during a fight in the court yard, Miroku saves someone for me and we become friends, Shippo at an orphanage, Koga at school, and Rin is supposed to marry my brother much later. But don't tell her that okay. It's going to happen about four years after school is over. When I left breakfast Sesshomaru's counterpart told me about our futures and how we will meet again. Sadly until Sesshomaru and I can come to a common understanding in the other time no one will gain any memories at all. It's sort of like a spell and the only way to break it is well…"she started to blush. The others were confused for the thousandth time that day.

"Well what do you have to do?" InuYasha interrupted her thoughts.

"When we meet in our time we have to kiss and profess our love otherwise 'we'll walk blindly through life without any recognition of our true lives.' Or something like that." Sesshomaru's face construed into shock. For as long as they'd known him he'd hardly ever shown any facial expressions and the thought of kissing her and saying those three words that she has yet to hear from his lips made him doubt that they'd ever truly be happy.

"So our reunion depends on you and Sesshomaru?" asked InuYasha. "We're doomed." He said dramatically.

"We'll just see what the future holds." Said Sango.

"Now here's what I've been told. Sesshomaru's other self has become a sage. These sages look over the lands. Two thousand years ago I was created by the sages to be the protector of the land. But with my presence on earth there couldn't be any feuds. Until Zualuu. He was much like Naraku except more powerful. Instead of thriving on hatred for humans he took his revenge upon the demons. He himself was born as a half demon only he had a human's body. I realize that it wasn't me literally who had been born then but I'm her reincarnation. She had the ability to change form and control the weather with her moods. She as created to be a dog demon but chose to live among humans and live as one. Sesshomaru or Uhen had been sent to her village originally to use her healing powers. Her touch could heal thousands of men. He couldn't stand her at first because he felt that she might be a danger to his race. He didn't know anything about her because she seemed so happy and peaceful. He expected someone fake. Sort of like a woman who lets herself become a play thing for men. That's how he saw her at first because many of his soldiers talked of her as if she gave away sexual favors, but what they went was that her healing was something to be seen. He watched her for a whole year in her village, trying so hard to get rid of his feelings. But found that he was falling for her. She told me that she liked him then but decided not to interfere with his business. Then one day the elders who had raised her passed away and she spend weeks crying, causing a rain and hail storm for a whole year. Then he found out about her having to die. Like you hear him say, he refused to watch her die. She never got to take care of the mist because of his actions. Zualuu changed his name to Azulu. My counterpart told me that the person who wields the mist has lost all control of it. Meaning that Azulu has been absorbed into the mist, he doesn't have his body anymore, not really. Us see we will come face to face with what looks like Azulu, except that it isn't him anymore, it was never him to begin with. I sort of suspected something but didn't think much on it then but his sent sort of reminded me of Kikyo."

"What's that supposed to mean?" said InuYasha, clearly still sensitive about that subject.

"Um, InuYasha no offence or anything but she smelled like dirt and rotting bones. But she covered it well so that humans couldn't smell it." He looked at her and glared. "Sorry, I didn't know that you were still attached to her." She gave him a look that said 'I thought that we had a talk'. He huffed but stayed silent.

"So then you have to finish the journey then?" asked Sango.

"Yes I do, but you guys can come if you want. Because once it's done you'll all disappear from this time and be reborn into different lives in my time. The fates will work in our favor and bring us all back together."

"If you are sure that it is best the so be it." Said Sesshomaru who stood. "But trust that I will find you and we will work this out." He said this will little to no emotion in his voice but she understood what he was saying.

"Then I'll try and be as annoy as the first time we met." She smiled at him. "But I can't promise anything. Who knows what I'll be doing for the next eighteen years of my life. I have to grow up all over again and do school again. Then after I've done that I get all my memories back from my previous life. How exciting is that?" she said sarcastically. "At least we'll have each other again right?" The all nodded.


Off into the distance far from Kagome and the gang a demonic laugh cuts through the air. It fills the mountain tops with an echo of terror. He looks out from atop his tree and can see a group halted about seven miles from him. Then a tornado approaches the group, followed by a young man with auburn hair and a fox tail. Lastly a boy dressed as a demon exterminator. The group doesn't move at all but sets up camp, having no clue at how close they are. He finally found a way to kill them and he couldn't wait until they came upon him. But first before they would even get to him he would send his men to take care of them. He only wanted the girl who resembled Kagome. The girl he could never have. He ran off into the night thinking about the end.

A/N: Well there you go, I have one more chapter and then I'm done! Can you believe it? I already started the sequel so when I post the final chapter to this story I'll post the sequel, which I'm calling 'The Future Looks Brighter'.